I can speak Thai so I guess I’m okay
I can’t speak Thai but I am not complaining because I’m not an asshole
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because they’re frequently proven right, English is the most commonly spoken second language after all
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Americans who can afford to travel abroad are generally more wealthy, and tend to be more over entitled in all aspects of their lives
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as if it’s not the english making this complaint
Why do you presume this is about Americans?
American tourists are much less common in Thailand than English or Australians.
Because they often do. And most non native speakers really work at it too. Love them for it
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Why’s everyone assuming this isn’t in America? I’ve seen signs like this here and it’s immigrants’ way of saying “listen we’re trying to speak your language well, but please be sympathetic as it’s our second (or more) language”. We’re generally fine with people not speaking English when we’re outside America, it’s inside our borders that we’re tremendous assholes about it
Because the plants and the building look very Thai, or at least tropical and not in the US.
Go from Wales, Alaska near the Bering Strait to the southern tip of Florida. You have traveled 4,580 miles (7,370 km) in 14 states and provinces. At no point were you not in a jurisdiction that was predominantly English speaking.
Mandarin Chinese may have the most number of native speakers, but English has the most number of total speakers, and those speakers are spread much more widely around the world.
The US is a business, economic, and geopolitical powerhouse. So was the British Empire.
I’m not saying that every other language should crawl in a hole and die. I’m currently taking a crack at learning Spanish. But there are pretty solid reasons why Americans make assumptions, even if they are erroneous sometimes.
I think the point is that Americans assume that people speak English in countries where English is not the predominant language without first making even the slightest effort to adjust to the local language and customs. And it really comes across as assholery.
Go from Wales, Alaska near the Bering Strait to the southern tip of Florida. You have traveled 4,580 miles (7,370 km) in 14 states and provinces. At no point were you not in a jurisdiction that was predominantly English speaking.
Laughs in Russian
Go from Wales, Alaska near the Bering Strait to the southern tip of Florida. You have traveled 4,580 miles (7,370 km) in 14 states and provinces.
I really want to do that, though I was thinking Washington (state) to Florida. Want to drive the Florida Keys at one point definitely. I’m a foreigner though, idk if they even let you stay in the country for vacations that long lol
It looks like the type of visas that are usually used for vacations give you 180 days per stay and last for 10 years. From what I’ve heard, they’re either fairly easy to get a hold of or ridiculously hard depending on your country of origin. In other news, everything in the US around visas and immigration is fuuuuuuccccckkkkked.
Probably because if your business is based around profiting from American tourists, you’re probably going to need to know some English. It seems to me like when money is involved people tend to find a way to communicate what they need to regardless of what languages they share, though. And obviously this does not excuse rude tourists.
Or tourists in general. I’m Estonian. Loads of Estonians go to Thailand. I doubt any of them speak Thai. Most speak English to some degree.
I always hope that everyone speaks English and if they seem worried about how it sounds I remind them that their English is way better than my their language which usually breaks the ice.
Heard someone say this on reddit many years ago after someone was being a wise ass about their English which was obviously second or third language
You speak English because it’s the only language you know; I speak English because it’s the only language you know We are not the same
That’s pretty funny, but I’m years past accepting the “hurr durr ignorant american knows only one language” thing. Except as a response to someone harassing someone about their English capabilities, as seems to be the case in your example. 😁
The way I figure it, if the people two states away from me in every direction spoke a different language from me, and from each other, I’d probably be multilingual, too. (As would most of us)
Is this not fairly likely in the US with Mexican Spanish or/and Canadian/Cajun French?
Within the USA, the language enclaves aren’t strong enough. You might find people who can’t speak English, but there are enough people in their communities that can speak English that you can get along.
Of the countries I’ve visited so far, I find that Mexico has the strongest language barrier as Mexico is large enough to maintain an internal standard of Mexican Spanish. Outside of the northern border states, you can drive two states away in Mexico and still have people speak Spanish.
No, because these people are also highly likely to also know English and the vast, vast majority of people in any given location speak English as a default in public. Unless another language is being commonly spoken in public, it isn’t even close to having entire states speak a different language.
Not whole states, but Miami gets close.
I’m sure there are people who go to Mexico/Canada as often as Europeans seem to be popping into other countries, but most of us very rarely do.
But most of us do have to visit other states often, which works out to a similar radius as hopping countries in Europe in many cases, that’s why I made the comparison I did.
I can restrict my bullying to those living near the Mexican border and the English
Most people I’ve talked to who know English as a second language speak and read and understand it better than most American’s I’ve spoken to who know only English.
Yeah I hung out with a bunch of Germans who were really good English speakers but constantly were self critical of their English skills. They were beating my German skills by a landslide even at their worst moments.
Even if you speak Thai, complaining about someone’s foreign language abilities as a foreigner is rude.
Implying the sign isn’t talking about Australians who visit in the same numbers
But America dumbo!
And perhaps Brits and Canadians. I’m not sure about their visit numbers though.
Or anybody in europe who probably speaks english as thats the “world language”
Unless they’re from a primarily English speaking country, they’d be unlikely to complain though.
I’ve met lots of people who seem to hold the sentiment that if THEY managed to learn English, why can’t EVERYONE ELSE?
Sounds like they have something to compensate for. ┐( ∵ )┌
Yeah they wouldnt complain… except if theyre my grandfather who started complaining in vietnam to a hotel receptionist that they dont speak hungarian, a language about 14 million people speak in the world and the only language it has mutual intelligibility with is spoken by about 10000 people…
Wait, in that case maybe complaining is a bit justified? Different of course of it’s a place off the beaten path, but if it’s a hotbed of English-speaking tourists then having staff that speak their language seems pretty important.
Guess it’s really hard to say without more context (story of the internet).
I don’t even know why some native speakers complain about having to deal with broken English when the learner only needs to know a tiny fraction of the language to be intelligible. As long as they have the vocab, grammar is mostly optional.
Just remember that any Americans vacationing in other countries are Americans who can afford to travel to take a vacation in other countries (and can even take that long of a vacation at all), and that explains the sense of entitlement and rudeness you see which gives Americans a bad name.
Also except for Canada and Mexico (and even for them depending on where in US you live, to get anywhere is a very long, expensive plane trip).
Yes true but that statement is also true for anyone else. Yet you don’t see that sense of entitlement
What statement are you referring to? The point that it’s far more expensive to travel from North America to a country in Europe for example, than it is to travel between countries in Europe? Maybe Thailand would be as expensive for both, though, I don’t know. Or the point that most Americans get much less vacation time than Europeans so again, only the more privileged Americans generally have the time off to take an overseas vacation.
Of course some regular people also take those vacations, but it’s probably a once-in-a-lifetime big deal that they saved up for a long time as a dream. Those aren’t the ones acting entitled, they are appreciating the opportunity.
I can’t wait for us to start exploring the galaxy and giving aliens shit for not speaking English lol
I’m sawwry, I don’t speak ‘at squeaky squacky, beep boop shit. Why don’t you try talking like an American?! You’re in American space space!
I’m American and I am continually shocked and grateful how commonly I’m catered to internationally. I mean it’s not fair in a sense but also there does need to be a global language and the English happened to be the right kind of assholes to win that honor.
It’s not necessarily just for Americans. English is the most spoken language in the world when you include people’s second language. That German tourist probably isn’t going to know Thai and that Thai cafe probably isn’t going to know German, but they can muddle though with English.
Right. I was addressing the title of the post. I am assuming Americans are among the worst among presuming English should be spoken everywhere, but I don’t fall into that category. I marvel at the fact that it’s so widely spoken.
It’s always so foreign to me that anglophones never need to switch to English to communicate internationally, that’s just their everyday language
Yeah, it’s pretty crazy to me and I’m an anglophone who barely knows other languages. It’s a marvel.
